There's nothing in economic theory that says you pause a third of the way through a deficit reduction programme which has gone way off track; nor does the fiscal framework, now effectively defunct with the abandonment of the debt target, dictate this approach.

Britain's finances remain under intense pressure after figures today showed annual net borrowing managed only a slight dip to £120.6 billion in the f...

The ten things you need to know on Friday 19 April 2013... 1) ED REJECTS AUSTERITY In recent days, Tony Blair and his allies have been sounding ...

The first substantive line of George Osborne's budget speech was: "We've now cut the deficit not by a quarter, but by a third". This might be surprising to anybody who read my earlier blog here, which pointed out that the deficit had (measured on a rolling twelve- month basis) been rising, not falling, for the last year or so.

The George Osborne budget was tepid and utterly uninspiring. To paraphrase Fraser Nelson of the Spectator, the budget was devoid of substance and replete with gestures.

The ten things you need to know on Thursday 21 March 2013... 1) THE NO-GROWTH BUDGET It's the morning after - and the chancellor George Osborne ...

Growth has ground to a halt, real wages are falling and more than 6m people want work but can't find it: yet our chancellor continues to fiddle - with beer duties and the pottery industry - as the British economy flatlines. The inconvenient truth is that George Osborne has become Labour's greatest electoral asset.

George Osborne insisted Britain would not "run away" from its problems and vowed to continue with his tough austerity programme after Moody's downgrad...

At the State of the Union, it is expected that Obama will turn to setting out more gritty detail on domestic priorities for this second term. Undoubtedly, a large part of the speech will focus on how the United States can protect their economic recovery and create jobs.

The UK will borrow £64bn more than expected by 2015 despite Chancellor George Osborne's repeated attempts to control the country's deficit, a report ...

In times of crisis, the need for clear information is more important than ever. Crunching the numbers in a transparent way is one of the best methods of public policy formation available to us, and data concerning jobs and growth has informed many reasonable economic arguments in recent years.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg appeared to admit that the coalition cut capital spending too deeply when it took power. Speaking ahead of the rel...

David Cameron has been accused of misleading voters after claiming the government was “paying down Britain’s debt”. During a Conservative Par...

The ten things you need to know on Thursday 10th January 2013... 1) BARACK OBAMA VS NIGEL FARAGE Yesterday, it was Richard Branson and a bunch...

Osborne can give himself a pat on the back - the Autumn Statement was a tricky job, well done. Of course, that doesn't let the Chancellor entirely off the hook. There are still threats to his prospects of eventual success.

To govern is to choose and in his autumn statement today setting our the governments tax and spending priorities, it's clear that George Osborne has not only fixed his economic strategy, but set in train the Conservative Party's approach to the 2015 general election.

As George Osborne prepares to deliver his Autumn Statement, the Labour Party has gleefully seized on findings that David Cameron has failed to live up...

George Osborne has admitted it is taking longer for Britain to recover from the financial crisis than he hoped amid warnings that he will not meet hi...

Treasury Minister David Gauke has expressed his frustration with the "fiscal nimbyism" of middle class parents who oppose cuts in child benefits, and ...

As a Conservative I have no pleasure in exposing David Cameron's deficit claims. However, as long as the party continues to talk down the economy via the blame game, confidence will not be given an opportunity to return. For it is an undeniable and inescapable economic fact: without confidence and certainty there can be no real growth.

Do you remember George Osborne’s first “emergency” budget in June 2010? The chancellor of the exchequer argued that “in order to place our fis...